Disability and frailty in people living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus in regional Australia: A cross‐sectional study with a measurement property assessment of the HIV Disability Questionnaire
Year: 2026
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: OBJECTIVES: To measure disability and frailty and assess measurement properties of the HIV Disability Questionnaire (HDQ) in outer regional Australian people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). METHODS: This cross-sectional, validity and reliability study included community-dwelling outer regional Australian adults with HIV. Participants completed the self-reported World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 (WHODAS; scored 0-100), 5-Question Frail Scale (scored 0-5) and HDQ (scored 0-100). Median scores (Q1, Q3) for disability (WHODAS) and frailty (Frail Scale) were reported. HDQ validity was tested based on 16 a priori hypothesized relationships between WHODAS, Frail Scale and HDQ scores (threshold ≥75% confirmed), and HDQ internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha (acceptability threshold ≥ 0.70). Seven days after the initial completion, the HDQ was re-administered for test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, acceptability threshold ≥ 0.75). RESULTS: Fifty participants were recruited, with a median age 55. Eighty-eight percent were male, and 38 participants completed the second HDQ. The median (Q1, Q3) scores were: WHODAS 9 (3,17), with domain scores ranging from 0 to 56. Pre-frailty (score 1-2) and Frailty (score 3-5) were present in 27% and 13% of participants, respectively. The HDQ demonstrated construct validity (81% hypotheses confirmed), internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha ≥ 0.79), except in the Episodic scale-Social inclusion domain (alpha = 0.34), and good test-retest reliability for all Presence and Severity domains (ICC range: 0.77-0.94). CONCLUSIONS: Disability, frailty and pre-frailty exist in this sample of outer regional Australians living with HIV. The HDQ showed acceptable construct validity, internal consistency and test-retest reliability to measure disability in this population. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12623000090617).
Source: HIV Medicine
DOI: 10.1111/hiv.70212
Language: English
Subfield: Emergency Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $4,150
OpenAlex ID: W7133851985
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: